Popular Music Lyrics Aren't Smarter Than Third-Grade Readers

What was the last book you read during elementary school? It turns out that book might have a lot in common with your favorite songs.

A new analysis published on data blog SeatSmart says the average reading level of lyrics to Billboard's top-ranking songs has dropped steadily over the past 10 years — now below the third-grade level.

Country was named the smartest genre, though that's not saying much since its average reading level was barely above third grade. On the other hand, hip-hop had the lowest score at a grade level of 2.6.

Yeah, Gayle. We feel you. But before we all switch to country, we should note the study might have some flaws.

Word length was a key variable. As the study's author Andrew Powell-Morse put it: "Country is the only genre generally devoid of words like 'oh' or 'yeah' repeated 20 times in a row. Sorry everyone else, but if you say it in the song, it's counted as a 'lyric.'"

But as The A.V. Club noted earlier this year, more bands are using the words "woah-oh-ohh" in the chorus. We have to know: Do the hyphens make it all one long word?